Cody Latimer will be limited in practice until training camp

Posted by Josh Alper on May 14, 2014, 3:22 PM EDT

AP

The Broncos added another target for Peyton Manning in the second round of the draft when they selected wide receiver Cody Latimer, but it will be some time before Latimer will be able to take on a full workload for Denver.

Mike Klis of the Denver Post reports that Latimer will be limited during the rest of the team’s offseason program as he continues to recover from a broken foot. The injury caused Latimer to skip everything but the bench press at the combine, but was well enough to post good numbers at Indiana’s pro day and during workouts for teams.

Those performances suggest Latimer should be fully recovered in time for camp, but his playing time could still be impacted if he’s just doing mental reps this spring. Rookie wide receivers often have a slow transition from college to the NFL and the Broncos have plenty of other options at receiver.

Demaryius Thomas, who also broke his foot shortly before being drafted, and Wes Welker have the top two spots nailed down and Emmanuel Sanders would be tough to beat out for the third spot even if Latimer were fully available this offseason. With Andre Caldwell also on hand, Latimer will be left with a lot of work to do this summer to earn a sizable role in the fall.

I really wanted the Seahawks to take Latimer after trading down multiple times, but the broken foot (which I had forgotten about) scares me. The Seahawks need more receiving help now, especially a deep threat (Richardson). You can overcome a broken foot, but it sometimes can take up to 2 seasons before a skill position player is 100% physically. Look at Crabtree; he didn’t really begin to come on strong until mid to late season 2011, his second season in the league, and Thomas also began to break out around that time. It hurt Crabtree in particular because he’s not really a speed demon to begin with. However, it’s not such a bad pick for the Broncos, because they’re deep enough at receiver that they can wait a year for him to become Decker 2.0.

Thing is he isn’t the same type of reciever as decker, has the potential to actually be better he is a lot faster his hands are just as good if not better and well he has manning from the start. By the time his rookie contract is up he will prob get a big payday to go somewhere with an inferior qb and fizzle out though.